"A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes. It was duly found." (p. 23)
In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World,the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (D.H.C.) said this to a child when the child asked him a question. This makes me wonder how messed up this society is to keep nature away from the people. They keep nature away from them because they think that it keeps them from "consuming transportation" and keeps them from getting all the work done. The very first sentence in the quote states that a love for nature kind of keeps the factories from running and keeping the society going. In our society today, nature is needed to keep the factories running. For example those who love nature like going camping, and in order to go camping you need tents and cooking materials, sleeping bags, etc. Someone has to make these products, so without nature there would be less products being made. The society in Brave New World is not much different from our society today, but in that aspect, it is.
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I see the point of the book and your point, and they both are reasonable. The book explains the reason why nature is a subject that shouldn't be taught or giving much importance, because nature might represent a free spirit and that can lead to people thinking about other things, which the society doesn't want. Think about this: Since love for nature isn't keeping factories running then shouldn't all love for something be banned or controlled?
ReplyDeleteI really like the connection you made between our society and the society indicated in the book. This connection shows that no matter what society you are in, consuming will always play a prominent part in society. Consumerism helps societies in a cycle in which people always wanna spend, so the factories keep on producing. I also liked the fact that you show how humans can modify society to make it run like they wanted to run. For example the hating of nature so people consume more. One think i kind of got confused on was the last part of your blog you could be a little more specific. Also think about this: Do you think that the society in the book stopped consuming cause of nature and that is why now humans are conditioned to hate nature?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about the whole camping industry that tells us we need all the new gadgets in order to go out and interact with nature? (Now, I'm not complaining about the "mummy" sleeping bag I was given when it was 22 degrees outside!)
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